Creatures of the night
by Saphireanime
Summary: Steve and Darren are best mates, vampire fanatics with an insatiable taste for adventure, like finding the fabled vampire mountain; they'll be the first humans to ever go there, if they survive the journey that is.


**Creatures of the night**

**Devils advocates**

Screaming. It was something that was not often heard in his house. Someone once told him fear spiked a response which gave you adrenaline to hair-trigger you alive. Rooted to the spot, terror closed his throat and bones. He did not feel any such trigger then. The French doors leading to the garden imploded and rained an unholy shower of glass like a terrific yet terrible grand entrance as advocates of the devil stepped in from the shadows of the night. No matter what deity he promised to be better to, that very same night would not swallow them back.

The little boy was sure that they had to have been spat out straight from Hades as wide eyes dumbly fixed on the two red headed, purple skinned terrifying monsters that crashed into his home. He stared into their glowing red eyes and the pale moonlight reflected off impossibly sharp teeth, there was no doubt in his little mind as to what the finale of this horror show was going to be.

"Run." The order came from his father directly before he launched himself at the intruders. He did not get far. Red flecked onto pale skin and stained platinum hair as knifelike teeth sickeningly deep into the neck of the man the boy had been raised to believe could protect him from anything. The boy's small hand rose slowly in a belated and futile attempt to save him, "daddy," he no more than mouthed.

The other monster stalked towards him slowly, sensing the easy kill, and still, all he sat and stared at him approaching until the sight of his mother wielding a frying pan entered his vision. Her sudden appearance and wild demeanour sparked the trigger. A rare show of protection for her only child showed her swing the appliance so hard it dented the base in the shape of her target – the hellion's head. Arms wrapped around his shaking form and rushed him out of the room and he found the strength to hold onto her until he felt ready to be set upon his feet.

They ran. He did not have time to think about the fact that his father was dead, danger was still apparent and the angry roar from the beast that had gotten over being startled alerted them to the fact that they would not be safe until they were in the forest. The sound frightened the roosting birds from the branches of looming giants of trees around them and the larger hand encasing his gave an encouraging squeeze as they quickened their pace. Neither spoke, to save breath, but as the unspoken message of 'don't stop, just keep running' covered the two like a blanket offering minimal warmth in the biting chill of the dark night, he had to speculate this must be one of the first times they were entirely in synch with each other.

They could lose them in the forest, there were so many places to go and hide, if they swam through the river to mask their scent, because beasts like that must have a refined sense of smell, then they would be alright, they were sure of it. His mother cut her neck on a low hanging branch and he grabbed her hand and continued to run, she had saved him so he was not going to give up on her either. They could not have been going for more than a minute before he slammed into something solid. He looked up and his breath caught in his throat, the other one – how had it moved so fast? How had it found them? The gleam in its eye was unmistakably one of lust and the boy cast a furtive look at his mother – the blood.

The moment the penny dropped for her he knew what she was about to do and he did not even have time to grab her wrist and haul her back, if it would have even done any good. He looked on in horror as the woman flung herself at the monster, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her own injured one near his mouth, tempting him. It was both a blessing and a curse that it worked. The little boy was not so naïve as to miss the fact that she was doing this for him and willed his body to rush onwards while the monster was occupied. He did not look back. He paid no mind to the brambles and nettles that tugged at his clothes and stung his skin. He did not steer clear of the muddy ground or duck under the branches, allowing them to claw at him as he rushed past.

He was not looking where he was going and cared even less, he barely managed to swallow his squeak of surprise as he tripped and went tumbling head over heels down and down until with a tremendous splash, he landed in the river. Adrenaline flooded into him once more, he kicked his legs and managed to get through the murky water and haul himself up onto other side. Freezing, soaking wet and still fuelled by fear he took off again. He ran until his muscles were screaming and his lungs heaved with every gasping breath he stole. He ran until his heart pumped so furiously his pulse echoed in his ringing ears. He ran until blisters littered his feet and his lips were cut and chapped from the wind and his shivering alone was almost enough to cause him to collapse onto the forest floor below.

He had never travelled so far so fast in his young life and with the danger possibly far behind him he stumbled into the town that lay on the other side of the forest. He would always remember it was a young woman named Arianna who found him first. She saw him stumbling through the town, soaking wet, shivering, hurt, and his eyes wide and haunted. Upon seeing her and recognising he was no longer alone, he fainted in her arms.

He was not to wake for a week but when he did, the world that he viewed was through the calculating and suspicious eyes of an adult. Something far more than his childhood died that day as life and the universe as he knew it was something he had to draw up from scratch again, it was something that could not be done in but a few days.

Even when his uncle came back from the states to look after him he did not trust him and it took him almost a month to even look him in the eye and trust was something that took a long time to build between the two. Even when he wrapped his arms around him and buried his head into his chest, he refused to cry, they just wouldn't come. His eyes were dead and in his chest were the stirrings of what soon would become an all-consuming hate. Because of what he used to know of the world it took a while to admit even to himself what it was he had seen that day, and once he admitted it, it became all that much harder to carry on because these beings existed.

"STEVE!" The fourteen year old boy jumped awake and stared at the boy who had woken him, one pale hand clutching his wildly beating heart, the other wiping cold sweat from his brow. "You were screaming in your sleep."

"Sorry Darren," he offered his best friend a shaky smile, the hard ground and whistling wind made it hard to get to sleep in the first place without piercing screams interrupting you. "It must be because of where we are."

"I know what you mean," Darren smiled and cast a glance around what appeared to be nothing but baron wilderness but harboured a dark secret, "this place gives me the creeps."

Somewhere on this mountain were vampires, terrifying, bloodthirsty, possibly fanged beasts, and they were heading towards them. He carved away at a branch with his penknife, methodologically and carefully scraping away bark and jagged bits of wood now it was clear no more sleep would be finding him that night. He could tell no one what he saw that day; when they asked he kept telling them he could not remember until they had to accept it as truth. He kicked the wood chippings away, his uncle's gun would work better, but it was the symbolism of his chosen weapon that was the point here, not its effectiveness. He stowed it into his belt and glared into the rising sun. He never visited the place of his parents' death, he could not bear the onslaught of memories merely at them being brought up but he never forgot and he would never forgive.

Even when the next misfortune of his life happened, he just kept glaring at the world through cold, dead, unforgiving eyes until a little red, rubber ball sailed over the garden fence and landed at his feet. "Come on," Darren gave him an easy smile and offered his hand once his bag was secured onto his bag, "we've got the whole day ahead of us to hike."


End file.
